From: "Morris, Chris" <chris.morris@...>
Date: 2002-03-28T04:39:45+09:00
Subject: RE: Variable variables in Ruby?

> > $_foobar = "Hello, world"
> > x = "foo"
> > y = "bar"
> >
> > baz = eval("$_#{x}#{y}")
> >
> > puts baz  # prints Hello, world
> 
> Thanks - but I know this one. I want to do it without eval() 

I was trying to whip up the answer using .send as in:

irb(main):017:0> class Test
irb(main):018:1> attr_accessor :a
irb(main):019:1> end
nil
irb(main):020:0> t = Test.new
#<Test:0x2a41518>
irb(main):021:0> t.send("a")
nil
irb(main):022:0> t.a = []
[]
irb(main):023:0> t.send("a")
[]
irb(main):024:0>

... but what do I send the message to for a global var?:

irb(main):002:0> $_foobar = "test"
"test"
irb(main):003:0> x = "foobar"
"foobar"
irb(main):008:0> send("$_" + x)
NameError: undefined method `$_foobar' for #<Object:0x2a79618>
        from (irb):8:in `send'
        from (irb):8

... who 'owns' the global var?